On Monday 15 February the Hall was delighted to welcome Songlines, the definitive world music magazine, back to the Elgar Room for a special evening of exquisite Middle Eastern rhythms.
Headlining the evening were Egyptian duo Tarek Abdallah and Adel Shams el Din, whose intricate, masterful performance captivated a sold out audience within the atmospherically lit surroundings of the Elgar Room. The pair performed tracks from their newest album Wasla, which was chosen as one of Songlines’ best albums of 2015.
Tarek Abdallah is widely regarded as one of the world’s best players of the oud – a stringed, lute-like instrument hailing from the Middle East. He has a Master’s degree in Musicology from the University Lumière Lyon in France and runs regular oud workshops in various notable educational institutions around the world. He regularly collaborates with Adel Shams El Din, who excels at providing deft and dynamic accompaniment on the riq (a classical Arabic tambourine).

Songlines’ editors Jo Frost and Simon Broughton select their favourite albums from 2015 that have been reviewed within Songlines magazine in the last 12 months. You can read more about these ten albums in the next issue (Jan/Feb 2016, #114), out on December.
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World on 3 by Lopa Kothari

BBC radio 3 @WOMEX in Budapest - Oct 2015

Lopa Kothari has invited Tarek Abdallah & Adel Shams El-Din to play live at BBC Radio 3.